


Love of a Replica

by Eos_of_the_Dawn



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Carla is a bitch but she's that bitch, Drama & Romance, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Smut, F/F, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Intrigue, Post-Canon, Some Fluff, There's a plot I promise, useless bisexuals
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:15:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23662963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eos_of_the_Dawn/pseuds/Eos_of_the_Dawn
Summary: After the events in China, Ada runs into someone very familiar. Can she help Carla repent for all the suffering she's caused? Will it stir something within her that she'd given up on long ago?
Relationships: Carla Radames/Ada Wong
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	1. Counterpart

**Author's Note:**

> I'm bringing this story over from my ff.net account. I'll be updating both on here and over there. Hope y'all enjoy!

Ada sighed as the elevator slowly ascended. She was returning to her safe house after another mission. This one had been particularly difficult. A client had hired her to infiltrate a terrorist organization and retrieve certain files pertaining to their activities. The hard part had been getting into the country where the organization was located. It was a region in the middle of a civil war with airstrikes raining bombs over the countryside.

She completed the mission of course, but it had been needlessly complicated by the UN showing up and hassling her. Now she was returning home, or the closest thing she had to a home, to sit back and relax with a nice glass of wine.

The elevator dinged and slowed to a stop. Ada exited onto the top floor and made her way to her penthouse. The door had a keypad that required a 10-digit sequence and if a wrong number was entered, the door would not be able to be opened for 24 hours. Ada randomized the code every time she left to prevent someone from acquiring it. The door itself was 8 inches of solid steel. The walls were strong enough to withstand a blast from 10 pounds of C-4 and all the windows were bulletproof. There was no safer place for her to be.

Ada punched the code into the keypad. She waited as the locking mechanisms disengaged and the door began to slowly slide open. It was always a satisfying sound to her, as though it was the very embodiment of safety and security. Such a sense of security seemed harder and harder to come by these days. Even more so after Simmons had somehow gotten a hold of her DNA and fingerprints and decided to make a clone.

She shook her head. _That poor Carla._ Ada had often thought of that young woman in the past few months following the incidents in Tall Oaks and China. Carla had tried to destroy the world, but it was Simmons who had used her and transformed her into a clone of Ada. The thought of what terrible things Simmons did to that woman made Ada’s skin crawl. She stepped inside, a tired sigh escaping her lips.

The inside of her safe house was decorated in a very modern style. Ada didn’t really care what the furniture looked like since she spent most of her time on missions, but this style was somewhat appealing.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ada spotted movement in the living room. In a flash, she drew her gun and slowly edged into the living room. There she saw a woman with shoulder length black hair sitting on the couch.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Oh come now, there’s no need for such violence,” the woman’s voice lilted as she turned to face Ada.

A chill ran down Ada’s spine as she the woman’s face was revealed to her. It was her own image reflected back at her.

She gritted her teeth, the woman’s name slipping through. “Carla.”

A coy smile greeted her. “Oh my. That’s a terrifying expression you’ve got there.” She motioned to the armchair next to the couch. “Please sit. Have some tea.”

Ada remained standing, her gun still trained on the other woman. She stared down Carla, suspicious of her intentions.

“How the hell are you still alive? And how did you even get in here?”

Carla took a sip of her tea. “All in due time, Ada.” She once again motioned to the armchair. “But for now, please sit.”

Ada narrowed her eyes at Carla and slowly lowered her gun. “Alright. I’ll play along.”

She sat down as Carla poured a cup of tea for her.

“I must say that I love this china tea set you have, Ada. The floral patterns are just lovely.” The other woman added a cube of sugar and stirred. “Oh, and don’t worry about the tea. If I wanted to kill you, you’d already be dead.” She then set a lemon wedge on the saucer with the cup and handed it to her.

Ada eyed the tea, then set it on the coffee table.

Carla chuckled. “So distrustful.”

“You’ll forgive my hesitation, but the last time I saw you, you were trying to kill me.” Ada replied sardonically, crossing her arms. “Which leads me back to my first question: how the hell are you still alive?”

She leaned back. “Well, back on the aircraft carrier, there was still a lot of my genetic material left lying around after our little…discussion. The enhanced C-virus that I had injected myself with allows for nearly limitless mutation and, as I’m sure you’ve seen, is quite tenacious.” She paused to take a sip of her tea. “The virus gradually regenerated my body and I washed up on the South Korean shoreline last month. I’ve been trying to track you down since then.”

She gave a wry smile. “You’re a very hard woman to find.”

“So, what do you want from me? I doubt that you went through all this trouble of finding me just to say hello.” Ada felt a smirk pulling at her lips.

Carla set down her tea, the light clink sounding sharper with the tension. “Perceptive. Yes, I came here to ask you for your help.”

“Color me surprised,” Ada replied flatly. “You killed thousands, performed inhumane experiments on innocent people, and nearly destroyed the world as we know it. Sorry if I’m not completely _gung-ho_ for whatever you have planned this time.”

Carla folded her hands on her lap. “I can understand your reluctance. I wouldn’t trust me either after what I’ve done.” Her gaze shifted to the window, glimmering with the sprawling city lights. 

“However,” she said, her eyes returning to Ada. “I do require your assistance with a particularly important matter.”

She had been watching Carla carefully throughout their conversation. There was something she noticed. This woman who had sought to become her seemed a bit different from the last time they had encountered each other. Despite her playful banter, there was a hint of something in her voice. Regret? Remorse? It could very well be a trick, and Ada had every right to be suspicious of her, but something tugged at the back of her mind. Something compelled her to want to help Carla. What Carla did to all those people was horrible, but in the end, she knew that Simmons was the true catalyst her downfall. Without his interference, she would likely have never caused such atrocities. 

Ada sighed, dismissing thoughts of the deep tragedy she felt a little responsible for. “I’ll hear you out, at the very least. But I won’t make any promises to help you.”

“I figured as much. The great and cautious Ada Wong is always ready to run from danger.”

“Keep it up and I’ll make sure your death is permanent this time.”

This only made Carla smile wider. “Temper, temper Ada. I guess I’ll just cut to the chase then.”

She pulled out the hologram cube and brought up several data files. “I need to break into this governmental building to retrieve the genetic data for Jake Muller.”

Ada raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you already get a hold of him?”

“Yes, but _someone_ destroyed all of my research data.” She shot Ada a sharp look, then continued. “I need to utilize his antibodies to stabilize the virus inside me. Without the antibodies, I’m in danger of losing control and mutating erratically like what happened on the aircraft carrier.”

Carla handed Ada the holo-cube containing the files. “And I don’t know about you, but I’d like to avoid having something that…unpleasant happening again.”

Ada looked through the files. “I don’t know why you need my help for something like this.”

“The security they have there makes it into a two-person job. Besides,” she smiled, a touch of arrogance in her voice. “If it could be done it with one person, then I would have already done it myself.”

_You are a piece of work, Carla._ Ada shook her head as she went back to examining the files Carla had provided. There were building layouts, guard post locations, and even several security codes.

“The main trouble we’ll have is with the vault they’re holding the samples of Jake’s blood in.” Carla continued. “I’ll have to hack the door and security cameras, giving you a thirty second window to retrieve a sample. I have to remain outside the vault room to keep the firewall at bay.”

Ada looked up. “And how do I know you won’t just take the sample and leave me?”

“You don’t,” Carla replied, finishing her cup of tea. “However, you will be compensated for your efforts should you decide to help me.”

Looking over the files again, Ada contemplated whether or not to take the job. There weren’t any other upcoming activities for her. _Might as well do it,_ she thought.

“Alright, Carla. I’ll help you on one condition: if I catch you doing anything immoral with these antibodies or if you try and double cross me, I’ll find you and erase you from this earth.”

Carla smiled. “I’d expect no less from you, Ada. We have a deal.” She held out her hand to seal the deal.

Ada shook her hand and picked up the tea she had set on the coffee table. Squeezing the bit of lemon into the tea, she chuckled a bit. “Now all I need to know is how you got in here.”

“A magician never reveals her secrets,” Carla teased, winking at Ada.

This actually got Ada to smile. Maybe working with Carla wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Carla got up and started to walk away, but stopped. “Oh and by the way, I’ll be crashing in your guest bedroom for a while. Sweet dreams, Ms. Wong.”

Ada sat in stunned silence for a moment. When it finally hit her, she shot up.

“Who the fuck told you that you could sleep here!?” she shouted at Carla as she entered the guest bedroom.

Carla was already halfway undressed. “Too late, I’m staying. End of discussion.” She turned to Ada. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get ready for bed, so I’d appreciate you leaving my room.”

“Your room. _Your room?_ Oh you may be crashing here, but this,” she gestured all around her. “All of this is mine.”

“Thanks for the room,” Carla said as she pushed Ada out into the hallway.

“Dammit, I didn’t say you could stay here!” There was no response from the other side.

Ada left in a huff, muttering about Carla being an “arrogant bitch.” She went into the kitchen and poured out a glass of wine.

She let out a heavy sigh and took a long drink. _What have I gotten myself into?_

The wind gently tousled Ada’s hair as she and Carla made their way over the outside wall of the facility. The journey there had been quiet, with Carla setting up the hacking protocols for their mission. Ada had wanted to know more about the other woman and what she was planning, but Carla was focused on preparation so Ada let her questions stew in her mind.

_She’s really thought this through,_ Ada thought as they silently slipped past the first security checkpoint. She looked over at Carla and marveled at what the woman was wearing. Here they were walking around outside in the middle of January and Carla was wearing an extremely revealing black dress. It had an open back and a slit up the side that was a bit too high for Ada’s comfort. The only thing that looked remotely warm was the ridiculously long red scarf she was wearing. The boots were nice though.

“How the hell can you wear something like that in this weather?” she whispered as they reached a service door.

“I’m just not that affected by the cold. It’s probably a side effect of the virus.” Carla reached for her holo-cube. “I’ll hack the door code.”

Ada brushed the other woman aside. “No need. I can pick the lock easily. Just keep an eye out.”

Carla smirked and shrugged. “Whatever you say.” She let Ada begin working on the lock.

Ada rolled her eyes at the comment.

“By the way,” Ada started off cautiously. “Why did you want me here on this mission anyway? It can’t be that you think I’d do a better job than you would.” She couldn’t help a small chuckle. “You think far too much of yourself for that to be the reason.”

“Well you see right through me, don’t you?” Ada could hear the smile in the other woman’s voice.

Carla continued. “Yes, there is a different reason for me bringing you here. If something goes wrong in the lab and the alarms are activated, the whole place goes into an automatic lockdown. All doors and windows are sealed, even the emergency exits. The lockdown can only be lifted after a two hour waiting period from outside of the complex.” Carla sneered. “The bastards were really thorough.”

“So if the shit hits the fan, you’ll sacrifice me like a lamb to slaughter?”

“Basically.”

Ada opened the door and the two slipped in. “Glad to know I’ll be of help on your little adventure,” she said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

Carla smiled. “Oh come now, Ada. I’m sure you suspected as much.”

“It’s still insulting,” Ada scoffed with a pout.

The two of them went through the service area and located a vent that led to the lab that held Jake’s antibodies.

Carla motioned to the vent. “Age before beauty,” she chimed with a mocking tone.

Ada rolled her eyes. “Ha ha. Very funny. Just give me a boost.”

Carla chuckled and nodded. She interlaced her fingers so that she could lift Ada up to the grate. Ada set one foot in Carla’s hands and placed her hands on the woman’s shoulders.

“1, 2, 3.”

Carla lifted Ada up effortlessly. On one hand, this surprised Ada. On the other hand, it was to be expected. After all, Carla was infected with the virus. Of course she would have above average strength. Ada opened the grate and climbed into the vent. Carla jumped and lifted herself up into the vent just after Ada.

They proceeded to crawl through the air ducts towards their destination. Both remained silent so as to not attract unwanted attention. Ada trusted Carla about as far as she could throw her, but despite herself, she was actually enjoying this mission. There weren’t any B.O.W.’s to worry about, no genocidal megalomaniacs trying to kill her. Nothing but a few security guards and a couple pesky alarm systems. Not to mention she was actually starting to really like Carla. It was strange. This arrogant nutjob who only months ago nearly destroyed the world was beginning to grow on her.

_I have to be careful though,_ she thought. _I have no guarantee that she won’t ditch me here or worse, cause another global disaster. I’ll have to keep a close watch on her._

“Take a right, then it’ll be the third grate on the left,” Carla whispered.

Ada nodded and turned right. She counted the grates until she arrived at the third one.

“Alright, I’m replacing the security camera feed in 3…2…1.”

Ada heard soft bleep noise from the holo-cube. She then took the rope out of her jacket and began winding one end around Carla.

“Look, I’m all for a little kinky foreplay,” Carla whispered. “But I don’t think this is the time.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Ada scoffed in a hushed tone. “I need an anchor and there’s nothing else in here to tie off on. Besides, I can’t have you running off now, can I?”

Carla pouted, rolling her eyes. “Hmph, fine.”

Ada tied several sailors’ knots in the rope to both secure it and to keep Carla from being able to untie it.

“You have five minutes to retrieve the sample before the next round of security checks.”

Ada nodded and opened the grate, throwing the rope down in front of her. She eased out of the opening and slid down the rope head first. A few feet above the floor, she flipped over and eased herself down. She took the rope and tied it to a door handle that was below the vent opening. It was more for peace of mind than actually securing Carla. She knew that if Carla was really determined to leave, the rope wouldn’t be much of an obstacle. This was about trust. If Carla was to be trusted, she would have to stay tied up until Ada returned.

Turning her attention to a heavily armored door at the end of the hallway, Ada attended to the task at hand. Carla’s hacking on the way in had provided the code for the door. At least that’s what Ada hoped. It was completely possible that this was an elaborate setup. However, she was forced to trust the other woman just this once. She approached the door and punched in the code Carla had given her. It opened with a quiet click. 

Before entering the room, she listened. No alarms, no sounds of anyone rushing to investigate. Ada exhaled, not having noticed that she had been holding her breath. Pushing the door open, she entered the laboratory. Carla’s voice came in through her earpiece.

“Alright, it’s sample number 85493 R-7. It will be in the refrigerated unit on your right.”

Ada turned to her right, seeing a door marked “Cold Storage.” She went to it and pushed open the heavy door, cool air washing over her. To keep the door from closing behind her, Ada propped the door open with a nearby box. She examined the numbers on the shelves, following the order until she arrived at a hard plastic container bearing the serial number Carla had provided. Sure enough, when she examined the label closely, it bore in small print below the numbers the name “Muller, Jake.” There was also a large red stamp reading “classified contents,” ensuring its authenticity even further. She opened the container to find several bags of blood, all bearing a label identical to the one on the outside of the container.

“I found it,” Ada reported. “It looks like they bled that Muller boy dry to get as much of the antibodies as they could.”

“Good. We can take a bag without anyone noticing. You have the insulated pack I asked you to bring?” Carla inquired.

“Of course,” she replied, removing an insulated phanny pack from around her waist.

“Take the bag that is last in the order of numbers. If someone notices that it’s missing, they’re more likely to think it’s just a numbering error,” the younger woman instructed.

Ada followed the instructions, selecting the recommended bag of blood in the container. She placed it in the pack she had brought and secured the container before turning to leave.

“One minute, thirty seconds,” Carla warned.

“I know.”

Closing and locking the cold storage room, Ada retraced her steps back through the lab towards the door. She exited and closed the door behind her, hearing the locking mechanism click into place. Looking up, her heart stopped dead in her chest. The rope she had secured to a nearby door handle was missing and the grate had been replaced over the vent opening. 

_That conniving bitch!_

She rushed to the vent, looking for a way to climb back up. Just then, she heard the sound of faint conversation coming from down an adjacent hallway. Panic gripped her. She was about to duck into the room next to her when a scraping noise from above caught her attention. Looking up, Ada saw Carla pop her head out of the vent.

“Miss me?” she whispered playfully.

“Just get me up before we get caught,” Ada replied in a punitive whisper.

Carla nodded and leaned her whole upper body out of the vent, arms outstretched. Ada grabbed on as the younger woman lifted her up into the vent. She replaced the grate mere moments before the security guard rounded the corner. Both women held their breath as the guard passed by. The guard didn’t seem to notice anything and proceeded along his route. Breathing a sigh of relief, the women noticed that the tight quarters of the vent had forced them to press tight against one another to fit inside. Ada cleared her throat and shuffled forward a bit to put some room between them.

“So where were you?” she asked the younger woman incredulously.

Carla rolled her eyes. “I was right here. I had to pull up your little rope because one of the lab workers was coming and I couldn’t risk them seeing it and getting suspicious.”

Ada nodded, understanding the threat that her leaving the rope in plain sight had posed.

“You ought to trust me more,” Carla chided, patting Ada’s cheek condescendingly.

Ada lightly smacked the woman’s hand away. “Let’s just get out of here.”

Carla chuckled and led the way back out of the facility.

Back on the plane, Carla transferred the blood bag to a cooler for the ride back to Taiwan. She rejoined Ada in the cabin of the private jet, taking a seat in one of the luxurious leather chairs.

“This is quite a lovely jet you have here, Ada,” Carla commented. One of the stewardesses approached and asked if she wanted anything to eat or drink.

Ada thought for a moment. “I’ll have a glass of mont blanc, please.”

The stewardess nodded and turned to Carla. “And you miss?”

“I’ll have some pinot noir.”

“Right away miss,” the stewardess said. She bowed and headed to the back of the plane.

The next few moments ticked by in silence. It had been one of her easier missions, even with her little scare near the end of it. She supposed that Carla had made a change for the better. The only reason she had tried to destroy the world in the first place was because Simmons had used and deceived her. Had it not been for that tragic mistake, Carla would most likely have never posed anyone, let alone the world, a threat.

“So,” Carla broke the silence. “When we get back home—”

Ada cut the woman off. “Woah, woah, wait a minute. _We?_ ”

Carla huffed, feigning embarrassment. “Oh goodness, in all my hurry I forgot to mention it. Silly me.” Her tone was in complete opposition of her words. She just didn’t want to tell Ada until she had gotten what she wanted. “I’ve spent the last few weeks establishing my new medical technology company in the five floors directly below your apartment. With your little safe house so close, it’d be the perfect place for me to move in.”

Ada had a white-knuckle grip on the arms of her chair. With great effort, she kept her face and voice calm. “So you’re just barging in whether I give you my permission or not, huh?”

Carla smiled graciously as the stewardess returned with the wine they had asked for. “I’m so glad we have an understanding.” Her voice was dripping with haughtiness and blatant arrogance. The stewardess poured the wine for each of them. Carla stopped the young woman by lightly touching her arm. “Thank you, dear. Oh, and you can leave the bottles.”

The stewardess nodded and returned to the flight attendants’ area. Ada sighed in defeat, taking a sip from her wineglass. After a moment, she chuckled to herself.

“What’s so funny?” the younger woman inquired.

Ada motioned to their glasses. “Our wine.”

Carla looked confused for a moment, then a knowing smile grew on her face. “Ah,” she said, holding her own glass up. “Noir and blanc. Black and white.” She giggled a bit, swirling the dark red liquid in her glass. “I suppose this says something about us, too.” Her face fell a bit, a note of sadness, maybe reminiscence, came into her voice. “Different, and yet, the same.”

“The same?” Ada questioned the similarity.

“Both are wines, which come from grapes. The same origin, but different results,” the younger woman explained. She traced her finger around the rim of the glass, her eyes gazing to a place beyond Ada’s vision.

“Only different by the intervention of another.” Ada added. She knew that they were no longer talking about the wine, but themselves.

Carla let out a weak laugh. “I suppose so.” She shook her head, as if to clear away some thought or memory. “Enough of that. Let’s make a toast,” she proposed, raising her glass. “To a new partnership.”

Ada smirked, raising her own glass. “To a new partnership,” she echoed, wondering if she’d regret this later. Carla smirked in return as they clinked their glasses together and drank their toast.

_Well,_ Ada thought as she relaxed into her chair. _This will certainly be interesting._


	2. Roommates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And they were roommates... ;)

As she piloted the small helicopter over the city, Ada’s mind mulled over the events of the past few weeks. About a month earlier Carla Radames, who she had believed was dead, had appeared out of nowhere asking for help obtaining Jake Muller’s antibodies. After they had succeeded in obtaining a sample of these antibodies, Carla had, much to Ada’s annoyance, moved into her safe house. Carla had also installed a research facility directly below the safe house, saying it was for “convenience.” However, Ada had suspected it was more of a statement. Basically, Carla was saying “You can’t get rid of me.” So, Ada had grudgingly allowed the other woman to stay.

The two hadn’t had much time to get used to one another, however. Several missions had kept Ada away from her Asia-based safe house. Now, she was finally returning after being away for a month. Still wary of Carla, she was somewhat apprehensive of what she would be coming home to. She braced herself as she approached the helipad to land. The helicopter touched down gracefully in her skilled hands. Since the safe house was on the top floor of the building, it was easy to use a large section of flat roof space for a helipad. Fortunately, there was more than enough room. Ada even had some patio furniture set out there for relaxing on warm, pleasant evenings. 

The rotors slowly decelerated as she grabbed the briefcase next to her that contained the payment for her last mission. $1.2 million in cold hard cash. It was a decent haul for a relatively simple mission, so there was probably some sort of scandal involved with the information she had collected. Not that she really cared. She was there for the money and only if something truly reprehensible had been going on would she have interfered. It was only on the rare occasions where her work involved an outbreak of the virus that she would consider abandoning a mission or even fight against her employer.

As she walked to the large glass doors (bulletproof, of course), she wondered what she would find Carla doing. It was early evening, so the woman should be done with her work for the day. Ada keyed in the door code and opened the door as it clicked open. She was immediately hit by a delicious smell that permeated the entire safe house. 

The door shut behind her as she stepped further into the living room. There had been some additions while she was gone. Some throw pillows and a blanket lay on the couch, as well as a couple magazines and an art book on the glass coffee table. Carla’s constant presence in the safe house probably factored into the “lived-in” appearance of the place. There were coats on the coat rack and shoes neatly arranged in the entryway. Soft piano music drifted from the entertainment system, somehow making the place seem cozy. It all seemed a bit surreal and unfamiliar to Ada. 

Turning her head in the direction of the kitchen, Ada spotted Carla in front of the professional grade gas stovetop. It seemed that she was putting it to good use with several pots and pans brewing an unknown, but wonderfully scented dish. What Carla was wearing on the other hand, had Ada staring stunned and slack-jawed. The woman was wearing a cotton floral dress with a frilled apron. She must’ve heard Ada come in because she turned and smiled at Ada.

“Oh good, you’re home. Dinner is almost ready,” Carla greeted her. She gestured with the wooden spoon in her hand. “Go put your stuff down and wash your hands.”

Ada blinked a few times before the woman’s words set in. When they did, she huffed indignantly. “First of all, don’t talk to me like I’m a child. Secondly, what in god’s name are you wearing woman?”

Carla glanced down with a perplexed expression. “An apron.”

“It’s pink and frilly.”

“So?”

“ _So_ , no one in their right mind would wear an apron with that much girly shit on it.”

Carla rolled her eyes. “Oh, get over yourself. I’ll wear what I damn well please, thank you very much.”

Ada threw her hands up exasperated and walked away towards her room.

“Wash your hands,” Carla reminded her.

Shutting the door to those words, Ada tossed her briefcase onto her bed. She sat down to recount the money, making sure it was all there. It was also to calm her temper. This living arrangement would be tedious if she couldn’t spend two minutes in the room with Carla without starting an argument. As she counted out all the bills, she wondered exactly what it was about Carla that got under her skin. At about the tenth stack of bills, she had decided that it was the fact that they both looked alike. Sure, Carla’s hair had grown out to about an inch or two past her shoulders, but it was still like looking in a mirror sometimes. Her uneasiness was amplified by Carla wearing or doing something that Ada herself would never do, like wear pink frilly aprons or run pigeon-toed. She had noticed the way Carla ran when they had broken into the facility together. The woman ran like a sissy.

Ada shook her head and sighed. Just thinking about it frayed her already thin nerves. She continued to count out her money until she was finished. All of it was present and accounted for. She replaced it all back in the briefcase and sat for a moment. The smell of dinner cooking wafted into the room, causing her stomach to grumble. She rolled her eyes and slid off the bed, making her way to the master bath attached to her room. 

The master bath was almost entirely made of marble from floor to ceiling with a whirlpool bathtub and separate walk-in shower. The shower had a glass door that opened on a hinge, with glass that was clear save for a frosted band in the middle just large enough to cover the interesting parts. Ada walked over to the sink and washed her hands, grumbling about Carla being too catty for her own good. She dried them on the hand towel hanging next to the sink and left to go eat dinner.

As she walked into the dining room, Ada saw Carla dishing out portions for the both of them. Carla looked up at her and crossed her arms.

“Are you ready to play nice?” she inquired with a raised eyebrow.

Ada smirked and took a seat opposite Carla. “I will if you will.”

A wry smile tugged at Carla’s lips. “Alright. We’re having Pad Thai and Lemongrass soup with squid,” she said, putting the plates and bowls in front of each of them.

Ada raised an eyebrow. “Interesting choice.”

“I’ve been using more Asian recipes since the ingredients are easier to come by out here,” Carla replied as she sat down and began eating.

“Makes sense.” Ada took a bite of the Pad Thai, surprised at the exquisite taste. “This is delicious.”

Carla smiled. “Glad you like it.”

“I honestly didn’t think you could cook,” Ada said with a low chuckle.

“Why’s that?” Carla asked, brows furrowed.

“Well,” Ada began carefully as she sipped a spoonful of soup. “I would have thought Simmons had provided for your every want and need, that you were his pampered pet.” 

Carla flinched slightly at the mention of Simmons’ name. “Simmons may have doted on me, but cooking and baking have always been a favorite hobby of mine,” she explained, a hint of anger in her voice.

“My apologies. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

Carla waived it off. “It’s not that. Just the thought of Simmons makes my skin crawl.”

Ada smiled, blowing lightly on her soup. “That makes two of us.”

Picking up her wineglass, Carla let out a small laugh. “Now that’s something I’ll drink to.”

Ada picked up her own and they clinked glasses, both wearing the same wry grin. They drank and ate in silence for a few minutes, the smile on Carla’s face remaining. After a while, Ada noticed that there was something different about the other woman. Something about her features had changed. With a little thought, she realized that Carla had an air of joy about her, something Ada had never really seen on the woman.

“You seem cheery. What’s the occasion?” she asked.

Carla looked up and smiled softly. “You think so? Well, my research is going far better than expected. I already have a prototype serum that I started using yesterday. I feel much more in control now.”

“That was fast,” Ada commented as she finished off her soup.

Carla shrugged. “I had recovered some research data on the serum Albert Wesker used on himself and applied it to my own data. It helped give me a foundation to work from.”

“Well, make sure you’re careful with your experiments. I’d rather not have a viral outbreak underneath my living room,” Ada said as she gathered her dishes.

The other woman smiled deviously. “The only reason there would ever be an outbreak from that facility is if I planned for it to happen.”

Ada stared her down for a few moments as Carla began to giggle. “You have the worst sense of humor.”

Ignoring the other woman’s continued laughter, Ada took her dishes to the kitchen and loaded them into the dishwasher. Carla soon followed, carrying her own dishes to the dishwasher.

“It’s funny because it’s true. I make sure to take every precaution to ensure against any eventuality. Otherwise, my plans back in China would’ve never even gotten off the ground.”

“Well, I suppose you’re right. You very nearly succeeded, even after you died,” Ada conceded.

“Planning is key,” Carla lilted in a musical tone as she turned towards the living room. “So what are your plans for the rest of the evening?”

“I was going to do my periodic security sweep of all my computer files and check the security feeds from all my other safe houses to make sure they’re not compromised.”

Carla turned to her with a frown. “That sounds terribly uninteresting.”

“Thanks for the assessment,” Ada replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Tapping her lips in thought, the other woman hummed quietly. Then, she seemed to be struck with an idea.

“We’ll watch a movie,” she announced.

Ada frowned at her. “I already told you what I’d be doing tonight.”

“Well it’s boring and it can wait a day. I think a movie would be splendid for bonding time.”

“Bonding time?” Ada asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes. We need to be able to get used to each other since we’ll be living together for the foreseeable future,” Carla explained as she turned on the TV.

Sighing, Ada rubbed the bridge of her nose. She didn’t want to admit it, but Carla was right about them needing to get used to one another. Trudging over to the couch, she watched as her roommate pulled out a wireless keyboard and opened Netflix on the television.

“You hooked a computer up to the TV while I was gone.”

Carla nodded as she scrolled through the selections. “It isn’t very powerful. I mostly use it for entertainment purposes. The real behemoth is downstairs in my lab. I’ve basically installed a supercomputer in my office,” she boasted. “Most of the hardware isn’t even available to the public.”

Sitting down on the opposite end of the couch, Ada eyed at the movies on the screen. “You’ve got a lot of sappy romances in your queue,” she commented with a sideways glance.

“A girl can dream, can’t she?” the woman asked in a wistful tone. “I take it you won’t be up for watching any of those. You don’t seem the type.”

She switched over to the Horror category and gave Ada a knowing smile. Ada glared daggers at the woman.

“Don’t even think about it,” she warned.

Carla chuckled. “Believe me, I wouldn’t. I just wanted to see the look on your face.” She flipped to the Action/Adventure category. “Any of these appeal to you?”

Scanning the titles on the screen, Ada found one she was familiar with. “That one,” she said, pointing at the title card.

Carla smirked. “ _Die Hard_ it is, then.”

Ada made herself comfortable as the movie started up.

“Question.”

She turned her head to the other woman. “Yes?”

“Why do you like this movie? I’m not bashing it, but it seems a bit too over-the-top for you,” Carla wondered.

Ada smiled. “Bruce Willis’ character reminds me of a certain agent named Leon Kennedy. Always in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

A sultry smiled curved Carla’s lips. “I think I remember running into him in China. He’s pretty cute. You two ever…?” She left Ada to fill in the blank.

Laughing lightly, Ada shook her head. “We kissed once in Raccoon City, but nothing more. He’s been chasing my shadow ever since.” She got up to grab a bottle of wine and some glasses for the both of them. Carla paused the movie for her. “The poor man has no idea what he’d be getting himself into if he decided to tango with me. My work is too dangerous and unstable for a serious relationship.”

She set the glasses on the coffee table and poured them both some wine. Setting the bottle down and taking a sip from her glass, Ada continued. “Although I must admit, it’s just so fun teasing him.”

Carla took the other wineglass. “And they say I’m the evil one.”

Ada shrugged her shoulders. “A guy like him would want a woman to settle down and grow old with. I have no plans of doing so. He’ll figure it out one day.”

“Well with that, we should get back to the movie,” Carla suggested as she pressed play.

The two returned to watching, periodically sipping their wine. About forty minutes in, a thought occurred to Ada. It had been longer than she could remember since she had watched a movie, even longer since watching one with company. This entire situation seemed far too normal to be her life. With all the shadowy organizations, unsavory politicians, and B.O.W.s she had to deal with on an almost daily basis, the simple act of sitting back and watching a movie seemed completely foreign. She decided not to overthink it and just enjoy the moment.

The movie progressed with explosions and gunshots, something Ada was well accustomed to hearing. All the over-the-top action was a nice change of pace from the scheming and intrigue of her work. She even found herself chuckling at all the cheesy one-liners. The knowledge that, in the end, the hero would prevail was a sweet lie that was only true in these movies. The villains of the real would often go unpunished.

Lifting her glass to take another sip, she realized it was empty. Before she could reach for the bottle to refill it, Carla had her hand on the empty wineglass. 

“Let me get that for you,” she said softly. 

The woman’s fingers grazed over Ada’s, holding the glass as she refilled it. Ada noticed that they appeared to be more delicate and felt softer than her own. The touch was warm and gentle, the gesture a bit too intimate for her comfort. And yet, she didn’t protest. Her gaze shifted to Carla’s face to try and read the woman, but her head was bowed to focus on the task of the wine in their hands. Only when she had filled the glass did Carla lift her gaze, and when she did, Ada was taken aback. The way those amber eyes seemed to look straight through her left Ada unnerved. Something stirred in the depths of that gaze, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Their eyes were locked, neither one stirring even the slightest. A small voice in the back of her mind seemed to shout a warning, although she wasn’t exactly sure why.

An explosion on the TV seemed to break whatever trance had held the two. Carla’s hand slipped away, fingertips trailing over Ada’s skin. She replaced the bottle on the glass coffee table and returned to her position on the opposite side of the couch, those intense eyes turning toward the movie.

Ada, however, remained stationary, her mind racing wildly to try and sort out what just happened. _What the fuck? Just what the hell is she playing at? I can’t get a good read on her. At every turn she continues to baffle me. She finally readjusted her position to face the television. God, this must be what other people feel when they try and figure me out._ She smirked at that. _I almost feel sorry for Leon, now._

They finished the movie in silence, Ada fighting the urge to glance at the other woman. When the credits rolled, she stood and stretched.

“Thank you for the movie. It was a good distraction, like all films should be.”

Carla shook her head. “What a jaded view of the cinematic arts. Although somehow I’m not surprised.”

“I’m off to bed. Goodnight,” Ada called over her shoulder as she headed to her room.

“Goodnight,” the other woman replied, still seated on the couch.

Shutting the door behind her, Ada ran her fingers through her hair. Whatever Carla was up to, Ada didn’t want to be a part of it. Feeling cautious, she locked the bedroom door. It was once again an easy obstacle for the other woman to overcome, but it made her feel better. As she got ready for bed, she decided to analyze what had happened in the morning, when she was well rested and more alert. Clad in a red silk nightgown, she slipped underneath the covers and turned off the lamp on her nightstand. As she drifted off to sleep, those molten amber eyes burned in her mind and colored her dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god, they were roommates


	3. The Irrefutable Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drunken recollections of trauma and seeking comfort in one another. Fair warning, there's reference to predatory sexual grooming in this chapter. I did my best to address this sensitive subject in a serious manner.

The days had passed in a sort of routine. Ada had gotten an infiltration assignment that was relatively close to her safe house, so she would come home there every evening. She would arrive to see Carla whipping up something in the kitchen. It was kind of strange having someone there to greet her when she got home. Strange, but nice. The rest of the evening would be spent watching a movie or two, usually action flicks with a few comedies thrown in. 

Talking to Carla had become a bit easier as she felt herself relaxing her guard a bit around the other woman. There were, however, moments when she would find herself staring at the woman, searching her features for that alien emotion that had smoldered in those amber eyes a week earlier. It was getting under her skin that she couldn’t figure Carla out. On the surface, their interactions had become friendlier. But, something had shifted between them. The atmosphere seemed charged whenever the two shared a glance or idle chatter. There was also the fact that Carla seemed to know exactly how to annoy her. _Two steps forward, one step back._

As the elevator to Ada’s safe house arrived at its destination, she shook her head to clear her mind. Stepping out of the elevator she prepared herself for another night of dealing with Carla. She approached the door and keyed in the code, waiting as the locks disengaged. When it opened, she entered to find Carla sitting at the breakfast bar with a bottle of tequila next to her.

She turned to Ada. “Heeeeyyy. There’s mah fav’rite roomie,” Carla slurred with a wide smile, her cheeks rosy with intoxication.

Ada groaned. Now she’d have to deal with a drunken Carla. “How much have you had, Carla?”

Carla glanced at the nearly empty bottle next to her. “Well, thiss was full when I started…” She poured another shot for herself. “Dinner’s in th’ kitchen.”

Ada walked into the kitchen to see a casserole sitting on the counter covered in foil. She set her guns and grappling hook down next to it and retrieved a plate for herself.

“So is there any occasion or are you just having a day?” Ada asked her.

“Experimen’ actually. I was seein’ how the virus affect’d my tolerance. Bein’ that it took the whole bottle to get me tipsy, I’d say it’s higher,” she said as she poured the last shot of tequila.

Ada chuckled as she sat down next to Carla with her dinner. “I’d say you’re more than tipsy.”

Carla waved her off. “Nah. I’m fine.” She squinted at the empty bottle. “I’ll get more tequila.”

The woman walked unevenly to the pantry as Ada ate. This might actually work to her advantage. With Carla inebriated, she might actually get some answers out of the woman. She smirked as the other woman returned from the bar with a new bottle and a second shot glass. Ada sent her a questioning glance.

“I didn’t feel like drinkin’ alone.” Carla opened the bottle and poured a shot for each of them. 

Ada took it and drank, the familiar burn searing her throat. She had to stay on her toes. Even drunk, questioning Carla could still be dangerous. 

“So,” Ada began. “You seem to be getting comfortable. You plan on staying long?”

“As long as you’ll have me,” Carla answered with surprising clarity.

The answer was puzzling and seemed a bit too demure for Carla. “You seemed a bit more forceful a few weeks ago.”

“I think we both know that if you really wanted me gone, you would’ve forced me out.” Carla poured another round as she spoke, a knowing smile gracing her features. “Now somethin’ tells me there’s another question you wanted to ask.”

Ada smirked and drank the shot. “Perceptive for a drunk woman.”

“I told you I’m only buzzed.”

“Right. There is something I wanted to ask you.” Ada paused, unsure of how to proceed. “It might be a sensitive subject though.”

Carla gave an exasperated sigh and poured yet another round. “Just ask. I hardly think anything would be too awkward considering what we’ve been through.”

Ada supposed that was true. She might as well ask. “What happened to you? I mean, I know that Simmons used the C-virus to turn you into me. I can understand your hatred for him. But why take it out on the whole world? What happened to drive you to such extreme measures?”

Carla was quiet for a few moments, her eyes swirling in deep thought. Then, she drank her shot and began. “I was 15 when I started working for Simmons. He was a brilliant man that actually understood the research I was doing. I wanted to impress him, so I began my work on the C-virus.” She shook her head. “I was just a girl. Naïve.”

“As my research progressed, he paid more attention to me. Simmons moved me into a top-secret lab, telling me to limit my contact with friends and family. For “security’s sake”. I didn’t know at the time that he was beginning to mold me to his own purposes. He would spend a lot of time around me, showering me with gifts and compliments. He hid his true intentions well.”

She looked at Ada, on the verge of tears. “I had no one to tell me that it wasn’t right, no one to protect me from him. When you’re that young and someone tells you that you’re beautiful, you feel so special. I wanted to be special to someone, to him.”

With every word, Ada felt her heart breaking. She had suspected some of these things from the files she had discovered. But as Carla spoke, images of Simmons doing terrible things to that woman flooded her mind. Ada had been lucky and was able to escape Simmons’ schemes, but Carla didn’t. Ada felt a little responsible for what happened to Carla. If she had never worked for the man to begin with, this terrible tragedy might’ve been avoided. She tossed back her shot of tequila and poured another, hoping the alcohol would dull the pain of guilt inside her.

Carla continued. “I got involved with him. He told me he loved me and I believed him. I was a fool.”

Ada put her hand on Carla’s shoulder. “It’s not your fault Carla. You didn’t know any better. Simmons took advantage of your innocence and trust.”

The woman patted Ada’s hand. “Thank you. But, what happened after I found out about his betrayal is on my head. I was so angry and hurt. I didn’t just hate Simmons, I hated the whole world. I hated the world that he and his _Family_ had made.” She took a swig of tequila straight from the bottle. “I didn’t want to just kill him. I wanted him to suffer, wanted him to watch everything he had made burn. I didn’t care who got hurt in the process. Luckily, even while blinded by my own hatred I had a tiny shred of humanity left. I reached out to you, the real Ada, to stop my plans and, eventually, to kill me.”

Ada was shocked by that last part. “What?”

“The last piece of my humanity couldn’t live with the monster I had become, yet it was unable to break to the surface of my consciousness and stop my plans. I knew that you were the only one capable of killing me. I sometimes wish you had succeeded,” she said, regret ringing in her words.

Ada was about to speak, but Carla held up a hand. “I carry the last of the enhanced C-virus. Even if I don’t launch an attack myself, if someone were to discover that I’m still alive they’d try to capture and use me. I’m a danger to mankind, just like any other B.O.W.”

“You’re a person Carla. Never forget that.” Ada said softly.

“Am I?” Carla wondered as she got up and zigzagged her way to the couch. The woman looked quite drunk despite the clarity of her words.

Ada sighed and took another shot, finally feeling the alcohol hit her. The buzz began to cloud her mind as she tried to remember how many shots she had drank. It had been five in less than a half-hour. Uh-oh. Ada could usually handle her alcohol, but she hadn’t paced herself this time and drank too much, too fast. With each minute, she knew the affects would increase. The good thing was that Carla looked more inebriated than her, so she could stay in control of the situation as best she could.

Looking over to the couch, she saw that Carla had decided to lie down for a bit. Ada was curious to see just how drunk the woman had gotten. So, she made her way into the living room and sat on the floor in front of the couch. Carla was lying on her side. Her eyes were barely open, cheeks flushed red from the tequila. She seemed be rambling to herself, hardly aware of Ada’s presence.

“Who am I? I’m not the me I was…before Simmons changed me. I’m not Ada anymore, either. So…who am I? What am I? Not human…not anymore. What’s my purpose? Why…am I even…alive?” She drifted off at the end, eyes fluttering closed

The stream of questions actually gave Ada some answers to her own. _She’s probably here because I’m all that she has left to hold on to. Simmons took her entire identity from her. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for her to move forward after all that._

Ada folded her arms on the edge of the couch, resting her head on them. Being this close to Carla allowed her to see the woman’s features more clearly. If she looked closely, there were subtle differences in their facial features that others wouldn’t notice. The slightly wider nose, a barely noticeable laugh line. Not to mention that Carla had let her hair grow out straight, falling just past her shoulders. Each difference Ada found made her feel better. They gave her back what that bastard had taken.

A lock of hair fell on Carla’s face, causing the woman to stir. Without a thought, Ada brushed it aside. As soon as she realized what she was doing, she jerked her hand away. What was she doing? That kind of gesture was intimate, meant for lovers. She had no business coming into any kind of contact with Carla.

As her eyes returned to see if the action had awakened the woman, Ada found herself relieved as Carla looked to be in a deep slumber. She then returned to contemplating the woman’s face, eyes oddly drawn to the lips. They were a rosy color, slightly parted by shallow breaths. A haze seemed to enter Ada’s mind as she couldn’t help but stare. It was probably just the effects of the tequila. 

She was mere inches away from the other woman’s face, feeling the warm breath lightly brush against her skin. Ada felt herself being pulled in like a magnet. Before she knew it, her lips pressed softly against Carla’s. They were warm and wondrously soft. Heat spread through her body, as if a fire had been lit within.

A moment of clarity cut through the haze in her mind, making her jump back. She stood and ran stumbling out through the sliding glass door. The cool night breeze felt good against her blazing skin. Steadying herself on the railing, Ada came to terms with what she had just done. She told herself that the alcohol had made her confused. She told herself that it was the tequila that made her body hot as a furnace. She repeated those words in her head, however, deep down she knew they were just excuses. The truth that she so desperately denied frightened her beyond comprehension.

Inside on the couch, Carla stirred. A devious smile curved her lips.

“How very interesting,” she murmured. “This changes things, now doesn’t it?”

She shifted onto her back, interlacing her fingers. “I believe I’m going to enjoy this.”

With that, Carla closed her eyes for some real sleep. She’d need it for what she had in store for Ada.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please drink responsibly kids.


	4. A Game of Cat and Mouse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ada is in denial and Carla loves teasing her

Ada awoke reluctantly to the sunlight streaming in from her bedroom window. Thoughts of what had transpired the evening before had kept her mind racing. She had tossed and turned for most of the night, sleep only coming in the small hours of the morning. Last night she had gotten drunker than she intended and had a heart-to-heart with Carla. After that however, there had been an… _incident_. Ada had kissed Carla while the woman was asleep on the couch. 

With a groan, Ada roused herself and shuffled to the bathroom to wash her face. As she turned on the warm water, Ada sighed at the realization she had reached the night before. Running out onto the balcony had helped to clear her head, allowing her to process what had happened. It took hours of arguing with herself for Ada to admit that she was attracted to Carla. 

She didn’t really have a problem with being attracted to a woman. Ada had taken both male and female lovers to her bed over the years. What really bothered her was the fact that it was _Carla_. The woman had been genetically modified to be Ada’s clone. Not to mention the she had tried to kill Ada and infect the entire world with the C-virus, thereby destroying humanity. Then again, Ada had willingly allowed Carla to live with her after all that. The whole situation was one giant cluster fuck. 

Ada decided to just act as if she hadn’t kissed the other woman until she figured out how to solve her dilemma. She knew Carla wouldn’t let her live it down if she found out about the kiss. Shaking her head, she splashed some water on her face to wash those thoughts away.

She dried her face and brushed her hair like she did every day, her mind wandering back to Carla. From the moment they met Ada had sensed something in Carla, perhaps a kindred spirit, that had resonated with her. As bad as it sounded, Ada admired the intricate plans for world destruction Carla had created. The woman was always thinking five steps ahead of everyone. 

Ada smirked as she exited her bathroom to get dressed in her workout clothes. _Well, everyone except for me._ She got the white cotton martial arts robe out of her closet and shed her pajamas in exchange for it. One of the rooms in her safe house had been made into a workout room. Ada used it to practice her martial arts and gymnastic skills every morning.

Exiting her room, Ada saw Carla in the living room watching the morning news. Carla turned to her and smiled.

“Someone slept in late. Was your hangover that bad?” she teased as Ada made her way over. 

“Just had some trouble getting to sleep.” She paused by the couch. “Did you sleep well?” Ada watched Carla carefully, searching to see if the woman remembered what happened the night before.

“Like a rock. I actually woke up here on the couch. Don’t quite remember how I got here though…” she replied, her thoughts trailing off at the end.

Ada was relieved by the response. It looked like Carla didn’t know about the kiss.

“Breakfast is in the kitchen if you were wondering,” Carla motioned with a wave of her hand.

Going into the kitchen, Ada saw a pot of curry and rice on the stove. She figured it’d be a good idea to eat before her workout since she’d been drinking the night before. Didn’t want to get dehydrated or hungry and pass out. She dished some up for herself and ate it quickly. Ada didn’t like to admit it, but Carla was a way better cook than her. 

She put her dishes in the dishwasher and headed to the workout room. The room had lovely dark hardwood flooring, which stood out rather nicely against the rather plain white walls. One of the walls consisted entirely of floor-to-ceiling windows that gave plenty of natural lighting. There was a punching bag, a treadmill, and a few other machines on one side of the room. A large gymnastics mat covered the dark wood floors on the other side. Some quarterstaffs and swords were stored on racks on the wall. Ada hardly ever found use for them, so they mostly served as decoration. There was a mannequin sitting in the corner that she used when practicing her martial arts.

Today she’d start off with some meditation to calm her mind. Heaven knows she needed it. Ada walked to the middle of the mat and sat cross-legged. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and began to clear her mind. She measured her breathing as she brought to mind a single candle burning in the darkness. It was what she always used as her focus point to concentrate her thought patterns. In her mind, the candle was all that existed. She had little measure of time while meditating, so she would stop when it felt right to her.

After some time had passed, Ada ‘s meditation was disturbed by the sound of the door opening behind her. Annoyed, she let out a sigh.

“What do you want, Carla?” she inquired with her eyes still closed, quite irritated by the other woman’s interruption.

“I thought I’d join you in your exercise routine.” Carla’s footsteps came a bit closer. “What are you doing?”

“I’m meditating,” Ada answered. There was silence for a few beats, then she heard Carla walk closer and sit down in front of her.

“I’m game.”

Ada sighed and returned to her meditation, doing her best to ignore the woman’s presence. She recalled the image of the candle and cleared her mind. The clarity didn’t last long however, a nagging feeling telling her to open her eyes. When she did, she was startled to find Carla staring at her intently.

“Umm, can I help you?” she asked, disconcerted by the mysterious look in the woman’s eyes. She noticed that Carla was wearing an outfit almost identical to her own. The woman had apparently procured a karate uniform somewhere and decided to wear it. Her sleek, black hair was pulled back into a low ponytail to keep it from getting in her face. Ada had the sneaking suspicion that the Carla had “borrowed” the uniform from her closet. 

“Sorry. I got distracted. You looked quite relaxed though,” Carla replied as she shifted her position slightly.

Ada rolled her eyes and decided it would be useless to try and meditate with company like this. She got up and began stretching.

“What do you plan on doing?” Carla wondered as she joined Ada in stretching.

“Well, I was going to work on my martial arts today. Maybe do some kickboxing.” Ada slowly lowered herself into a split. Looking to the side, she was amused to see Carla doing one as well.

“With that nasty mannequin in the corner? I would think you’d rather have a more worthy opponent,” Carla retorted as she stood and bent over backwards into a handstand.

“Is that a challenge?” she asked with a wry smile.

“More of a suggestion. But, challenge works as well,” Carla said, getting into a stance and beckoning Ada.

Ada felt a genuine smile spreading across her face. It had been some time since she had fought anyone who could give her a real challenge. However, she wasn’t even sure that Carla could fight on the same level. _Well, I guess I’ll find out_ , she thought as she shifted into a fighting stance.

They both remained still for a few moments, each waiting for the other to strike first. Carla smirked and led with a right hook, which Ada easily brushed aside. She redirected the momentum into a low sweep with her leg. Ada flipped out of the way of the strike only to see an uppercut heading towards her as she righted herself. She narrowly avoided it, landing a kick to Carla’s abdomen. However, the woman caught Ada’s leg and wouldn’t let go. Ada jumped and swung her other leg around to try and land another strike. Carla was forced to let go and duck as she rolled away from the attack. 

Ada landed as gracefully as a cat. She began to circle Carla, thoroughly enjoying herself. Her breath came a bit more shallow than normal, but this fight was hardly a challenge so far. 

A single bead of sweat that glimmered on Carla’s cheek caught her eyes. _Good to know I’m giving her a good fight._ She followed the drop of sweat as it trailed its way down the woman’s slender neck and collarbone. Carla’s top must have loosened during their little sparring match because the overlapping sides opened up enough to show a good amount of cleavage. Ada watched, enraptured as that droplet descended to lovely breasts.

Carla must have noticed that she had been distracted because she used those moments to close the distance between them. Ada snapped to attention as Carla lunged at her. She barely had enough time to tense her body as the other woman slammed into her. The force of the blow knocked the wind out of her and she stumbled back into the wall, several quarterstaffs clattering to the floor in front of her. Carla stepped forward, bending down to pick up a staff.

“What’s the matter, Ada?” she taunted. “A ‘cheap knockoff’ too much for you?” Carla twirled the quarterstaff around, a Cheshire grin spreading across her face.

Ada scowled as she picked up a staff, as well. She stood and thrust the end at Carla, the woman evading to the left and swinging her staff downward. Ada blocked, a loud crack sounded from the blow. 

Strike, swing, evade, block. 

She began to see patterns in Carla’s movements. With every strike and movement, Ada came closer to identifying the style. Her mind went into overdrive, carefully deconstructing Carla’s moves as she developed a strategy.

Swing, swing, pivot, jab, block.

Ada finally pinpointed Carla’s fighting style and went on the offensive. She utilized a combo that sacrificed power for speed. It worked and Carla was now on the defensive, using only blocks and evasions. Even though they were locked in a heated battle, both women bore mile-wide grins. The strategizing, the careful calculations, they were in their element. 

Now, Ada was going to go for the win. She switched to a more power oriented style, throwing off the other woman’s footing in the process. Carla recovered and countered, hooking her staff underneath Ada’s. With a swift movement, she disarmed her. 

Ada, now without a weapon, dove to the side and rolled to get some distance between them. She had underestimated Carla at every turn. That wouldn’t happen again. She did a roundhouse kick as Carla swung to strike her. The staff shattered in two, but Carla simply used the halves as batons. Ada dodged the strikes, then grabbed one of the woman’s wrists. She held on tight, dodging a kick from Carla. The woman twisted around, slid her leg behind Ada’s, and slammed her body backward. This caused the two of them to fall to the floor, with Carla landing on top. The two struggled with one another, Ada landing a head butt. She wrapped her legs around the other woman’s waist and flipped the two of them over. Now on top, Ada pinned Carla’s wrists. She had finally won.

Ada’s breathing was ragged and she felt her bangs sticking to the sweat on her forehead. Carla had proven to be a more than worthy opponent in a fight. Looking down, her heart skipped a beat. In the scuffle Carla’s shirt had come almost completely undone, opening up all the way down to her navel. The woman’s breasts were barely covered and shimmering with a thin veil of sweat. 

The more she looked, the more heat Ada felt coloring her cheeks. Her eyes were pulled upward to Carla’s face, where she saw something that made her heart race. Carla tilted her head to the side, a sultry smile curving the lips that Ada knew were so soft.

“Something wrong, Ada?” she crooned, her amber eyes gazing in a way that belonged in the bedroom. Carla arched her back, her shirt opening a bit more to come dangerously close to exposing her nipples. Since Ada was straddling her, the motion stimulated her in a way she enjoyed far more than she should have.

“Damnit,” Ada hissed through her teeth.

Carla’s smile widened. “Anything you’d like to talk about, hm?” 

Ada realized that Carla had been playing her this whole time. It really got under her skin that Carla had been able to manipulate her like that. Her anger mixed with arousal to send her into quite a mood. She let go of Carla’s wrists and stood up to walk away.

“I gotta say, being attracted to someone who looks exactly like you seems pretty narcissistic Ada,” Carla said in a mocking tone.

“Shut it, Carla,” she growled at the woman. “And exactly what the hell is your angle here!? What do you even want from me?” Ada shouted, her anger rising by the second.

Carla stood up and adjusted her shirt. “I think the better question is to ask yourself what you want from me. After all,” She approached Ada and wrapped an arm around her waist, leaning in close. “You are the one who kissed me first.”

Ada felt indignant, but the woman was right. She sighed defeat. “You’re a very good actress, Carla. I didn’t even think you were awake.”

Carla shrugged. “It’s a gift.”

Shaking her head, Ada pulled the woman in close. “You’re infuriating.”

“And you want to get in my pants. Of the two of us, I think you’re the one with the problem here.”

“Well, there’s a solution to that,” she murmured, tipping Carla’s chin up. Their lips met and Ada felt heat blossom inside her. She knew she was playing a dangerous game with the other woman, but she also knew that resisting her desires would be even more dangerous. Carla’s lips parted willingly beneath hers. This made Ada smirk as she deepened the kiss. She ran her hands through Carla’s hair, delighting in the moan it elicited from the other woman. 

Ada backed her up against the wall, hands traveling over Carla’s curves. She slid her thigh between the other woman’s legs as her hands slipped under Carla’s shirt.

Breaking the kiss, Carla grabbed Ada’s hands and removed them. “Woah there, tiger. I didn’t give you permission to go to second base.”

Ada huffed. “I thought you gave me the green light. Would you make up your mind, woman?”

“You think I’m going to give it up just like that? You haven’t even bought me dinner.”

Ada pinched the bridge of her nose. “So, you want a date?”

Smiling, Carla patted her cheek. “Precisely. Now don’t give me that look, Ada. It’ll be fun.” She leaned in again. “Your enthusiasm was quite invigorating, though.”

The two kissed, the pace a bit slower than before. Something happened that Ada had not expected. She began to lose herself in the kiss, forgetting all but the moment they were sharing. It was as if the world had fallen away beneath her feet.

The sound of both of their phones ringing shattered the euphoria. Ada groaned and walked out to the living room to retrieve her phone. She answered it, listening to the mission briefing that came through. She accepted the mission and received her instructions, making sure to memorize the details. She hung up and turned to see Carla writing down some information on a notepad. As the woman thanked the person on the phone, Ada wondered what the call was about.

Carla hung up and looked at her. “A facility has been compromised in eastern Europe. My source tells me they may have been experimenting with the C-virus.”

Ada smirked. “Well it’s a small world then, isn’t it? I just got a request to retrieve that facility’s research data and survey the extent of the outbreak. Probably one of their competitors trying to get ahead.”

“Guess we’ll have to do a rain check on that date then,” Carla said as she walked to the kitchen. She punched some numbers into a keypad, which opened up a hidden panel in the wall. A rack of guns was revealed, along with plenty of ammo. Carla picked up a handgun and proceeded to load it, retrieving several ammo clips as well.

Ada sauntered up beside her, picking up her sniper rifle. “I don’t recall giving you the passcode for the gun stash.”

“It wasn’t hard to figure out,” Carla commented. “You really shouldn’t use something as important as the date of the Raccoon City incident as a passcode.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Ada said as she packed the sniper rifle and its ammo into a case. She also grabbed her crossbow and an uzi to cover all her bases. “We leave in 20 minutes.”

“Enough time for a quick shower,” Carla said with a wink as she headed off to her bathroom.

Ada supposed she was right. She was still sweaty from their fight and wanted to be nice and clean for this mission. Walking to her master bathroom, Ada wondered what contacts Carla had to alert her of something that was most likely being kept under wraps. She’d have to ask her about it later. The most important thing was to get to the location before any of the information was compromised. A nagging feeling in the back of her mind told her there was more going on here than what was let on. Either way, she’d get to the bottom it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first attempt at a fight scene. Hopefully I'll improve as this series progresses.


	5. Subterfuge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carla and Ada investigate an outbreak and run into some familiar faces...

Snow began to fall lightly as Ada and Carla ran through the forest. They were almost to the facility where the outbreak had occurred. There was a small town about three miles away from the facility, but Ada avoided it in case the infection had spread to the town. No need to get unnecessarily delayed by dealing with the infected. Her and Carla were only here to retrieve information.

Once again, Carla was dressed in attire that was completely inappropriate for the current weather. She was wearing a light cardigan with a skirt and heels, a crimson ascot tied around her neck. Her hair was up in a loose bun that actually looked good on her.

“At this point I think you’re intentionally trying to piss me off,” Ada grumbled as they reached the edge of the forest. They took cover behind a bush as she surveyed the valley below them. Ada herself was wearing a fur-lined parka and dark-wash jeans with leather boots and gloves.

“Excuse me if I want to be stylish,” Carla replied in a low voice as she lifted the sniper rifle off her shoulder and handed it to Ada.

“Being that it’s 12º F right now, you should be hypothermic.”

Carla rolled her eyes. “We’ve been over this. I produce far more body heat than you do, so don’t get your panties in a twist.”

She huffed and let it be, training her sniper scope to the town below. It was as she had feared. There were fires and J’avo running rampant through the small town, as well as some reptilian monstrosities that she hadn’t encountered before. 

“We’ll circle around to the north. There’s a hidden service entrance to the facility on the northwestern slope. We’ll get in through there.”

They were currently standing on the edge of a 20 meter high cliff. To get to the northwestern slope, they’d have to repel down. They’d keep to the cover of the woods for as long as possible. Ada handed the rifle back to Carla to carry and pulled out her grappling hook.

“I can’t believe you’re making me lug your guns around like a pack mule,” the woman complained as she retrieved her own grappling hook.

“Don’t complain. I’m relying on you to be my backup. You’re lucky I allowed you to come along at all.” Ada shot the hook into the tree branch above her. 

Carla followed suit. “I’m _here_ because I want to try and contain the virus I created as best I can. Not to be your personal gun rack.”

_Well that answers that_ , Ada thought as she jumped over the edge and swung down, being careful to avoid the trees. She had been more than a little curious as to Carla’s purpose here. A little voice told her there was likely more going on than just that, but Ada knew she’d find out eventually. She landed with Carla right behind her and they took off at a jog. Luckily, the service entrance was only about a mile from their position. The two made their way in silence, keeping their ears keen for any sounds of approaching enemies. 

Ada had known that the lull in bio-terrorist activity following the incidents in China and Edonia would be short lived. Every time someone like Wesker, Simmons, or Carla was taken out, another would rise to take their place. She only wondered who was plotting behind the scenes this time. Intuition told her that the current outbreak wasn’t an accident. Hopefully there would be some useful information at the lab to shed light on the subject.

“There!” Carla called out as they approached a break in the trees. A concrete cylinder protruded from the ground just outside the tree line. It had a steel cover that was secured with a large padlock and chain.

The two women approached it, Carla shaking her head. “Sloppy. No wonder there was an outbreak.”

Ada drew her uzi. “I suppose they thought no one would try to open it. Most people would think it’s just a sewer line or something.” She shot off the lock and removed the chain. “Besides there’s probably a lot more security inside the actual facility.”

Carla lifted the lid. “I certainly hope so.”

They both climbed down the ladder into the dark tunnel below. Reaching the bottom, Carla retrieved two flashlights from her bag and turned them on. Ada took one and clipped it to her parka. She then drew her gun and made her way down the tunnel with Carla following close behind. The information Ada had gathered said that the tunnel would lead them into the third level of the facility. The information she was after would be in the company servers on Level 5, the most secure level.

Coming to a fork in the path, Ada turned right and continued on. She took a glance back at Carla, who had been surprisingly quiet on their journey so far. When she did, she was startled by the intense expression on the woman’s face. Ada quickly turned back around, figuring that Carla had her reasons to be so livid.

_Wait. Why am I trusting her? With the way she has been manipulating me, I should be on guard. But, I’m not. She must be getting to me._ Ada made a left and came to a steel door. This would lead them to level 3. _I can’t think about this now. Gotta focus._

She hacked the security system on the door and pulled it open. Carla breezed past her without looking back.

“You’re welcome,” Ada called to her indignantly as she shut the door behind them.

Carla pulled out her holo-cube and flipped through some files. “Go on ahead. I’m going to take a look at the labs on this level.”

Ada crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. “And I’m just supposed to leave you to your own devices in a compromised state-of-the-art laboratory? I don’t think so.”

Turning to face her, Carla rolled her eyes. “You still don’t trust me?” she asked, walking toward Ada. “Even after all we’ve _been through?_ ” Carla wrapped her arms around Ada’s waist, pressing their bodies together. She tilted her head, waiting for an answer.

Ada’s eyebrows furrowed. “ _Especially_ after what we’ve been through.”

Carla chuckled. “Aw, you’re mad at me again. I should cheer you up,” she teased as she leaned in, bringing their lips together.

Despite herself, Ada kissed back. Carla was the only one to be able to toy with her so easily. She made a note to work on that later.

Breaking the kiss, Ada sighed with frustration. “Just go check on the damn lab, would you? We don’t have time for this.”

“Thanks, babe,” Carla said as she pulled away. After walking a few steps, she turned to the now fuming Ada. “Maybe getting you laid will improve your attitude.”

With that, she left. Ada took a few moments to remind herself why it would be a bad idea to shoot the woman. Even though hiding the body here would be so easy. She took a deep breath to calm herself, then proceeded down the hallway. 

Evidence of the outbreak was all around her. Papers scattered about, doors swinging precariously on their hinges, and periodically, Ada would pass a mutilated corpse. Her steps were light, quiet. She strained to listen for any noise, any sign that infected were nearby. Luck seemed to be on her side, as she hadn’t run into any so far. But, Ada knew better than anyone that luck was a fickle bitch. 

A clamoring up ahead drew her undivided attention. With a pounding heart, she ducked into a doorway. Cautiously, she leaned out just enough to get a look at the source of the noise. Four trained J’avo like the ones Carla had used entered the dark, desolate hallway. They seemed to be guarding the way to the elevator.

“Shit!” Ada swore under her breath. This was a bad place to be stuck in.

Consulting the floor plans she had acquired, she found a vent that she could use to get around the chittering infected. Quickly unlatching the grate, Ada crawled inside just in time to not be spotted. With a sigh of relief, she proceeded through the ventilation towards her destination. Peering through the grates as she moved, Ada observed how organized they were. _Could it be that someone’s improved the J’avo?_

She shook her head and continued towards her goal. All that was someone else’s problem until she was directly threatened, in which case the threat would be disposed of.

When she reached the end of the vent, she carefully dislodged the cover and slipped through. Ada landed lightly in a fairly large room that contained four statues on pedestals. On each of the walls behind the pedestals was a painting of what was depicted by the statues along with square recesses in the floor.

The Family, the shadowy organization supposedly running the world, was the only probable explanation for this esoteric, idiotic puzzle game in front of her. In all her travels, they were the only ones who did this kind of thing.

Seeing it made Ada groan. “For fuck’s sake, not again. Why does the Family always insist on having these elaborate door locks?”

Trying to find the way to access the elevator, she examined the paintings. They would most likely provide clues as to the placement of the statues. After a few minutes, Ada had figured out what she needed to do and set about dragging the pedestals to their proper places and rotating them to the correct side.

“I’m tired of these motherfucking puzzles in these motherfucking facilities,” she grumbled as she hefted the last pedestal into place.

The opposite wall lifted, making a loud grinding noise as it rose to reveal a large platform suspended in the immensely deep elevator shaft. A walkway extended out to meet the platform, lights flickering to life to illuminate the way. The metal was shiny and there seemed to be no evidence of grime. This probably meant that the facility was fairly new. Something for her to keep note of. 

Ada proceeded to the platform, punching the button for Level 5. The metal walkway pulled away and the platform began a smooth decent. Level 5 was approximately 50 meters below Level 3 to prevent outside signals from interfering with the electronics. The system cut off all access during emergency situations and could only be reactivated manually by flipping five switches in the correct order. It was quite isolated from intrusion, which made it particularly annoying for her to access.

Carla’s voice crackled into her earpiece, the stone of the mountain probably causing interference.

“Ada, I’ve got good news and bad news.”

“Bad news first,” she answered. Might as well get it out of the way.

“It looks like they’ve been trying to recreate the enhanced C virus that I crafted. From the notes I’ve been able to gather from up here, they’ve been mixing the C virus with the T-Abyss virus in an attempt to strengthen and expand the mutation range.” Carla rattled off the information, a tone of worry creeping into her voice.

“This worries you?” Ada asked, trying to uncover more of the woman’s motives.

“The T-Abyss variation of the virus is extremely resilient, being that it was derived from deep sea organisms evolved to survive volatile conditions. If they actually manage to replicate the advanced form of the C-virus I created, hosts will be able to mutate almost infinitely,” Carla explained at length.

Ada’s brows furrowed. “You and Simmons were hard enough to kill as it was. A virus that strong would be devastating.”

“Exactly.” There was a pause. “It looks like they were getting close when this whole shit storm started.”

The elevator slowed to a halt and Ada waited for the walkway to fully extend.

“Well then, I think I’m ready for that good news now,” she queried the other woman.

She could feel Carla’s mischievous smile through the earpiece. “Your little boy-toy is here. And he’s brought company, too. Oh, what was his name?”

Sighing heavily, Ada made her way to the Level 5 door. “Leon. I wonder what he’s doing here.” She smirked. “He hasn’t seen me since China.”

“Oh, can I mess with him? Please?” Carla sounded positively giddy. “It’ll be hilarious.”

“No,” she replied in an adamant tone as she hacked the door code. “Get down here as soon as possible. We’re here to get in and get out before the military blows this place sky high.”

“Kill joy,” was the last word before Carla disconnected.

It took several minutes to bypass the security system. Once she was through, the light turned green and the heavy steel door slowly lifted. She walked calmly down the well-lit, pristine white hallway. Here and there were intersections that led to high clearance offices. Ada took a right at the third of these and was stopped dead in her tracks.

Snowy white walls were painted red with blood and dotted with bullet holes. Limbs and hunks of unidentifiable flesh littered the floor with one or two amorphous infected slumped over, brain matter leaking from heads blown apart by a twelve gauge shotgun that lay abandoned and spent. Ada quietly drew her gun, the very air she breathed tasting of iron. Even after all these years, the scent made her want to gag.

She slowly advanced down the hallway, stepping gingerly between the grotesque disfigured corpses and spent shell casings. At the end there was a “T” intersection where the body of what was once a female scientist lay slumped against the wall. Cold fingers still desperately gripped the handle of a fire axe. Smeared in blood just above the woman’s head were two words:

_He lives_

A cryptic dying message. Perfect. As if things weren’t suspicious around here as it was, there’s this obscure message that was so important that this woman spent her final moments writing it. Ada crouched over the woman’s body.

“I hope it was worth it,” she muttered softly. 

Something caught her eye as she examined the words. An all too familiar symbol was drawn beneath the message. The dripping red umbrella symbol turned her stomach. It seemed there were still some ghosts of the old company that refused to fade. Somehow she always seemed to find them, even when she wasn’t looking.

Trying to find some more answers, Ada searched the young woman further. The only thing on her was an ID tag that had been hidden by pale blonde hair. It read “Sharon L. Ashford.” The name made Ada’s blood run cold. No one had seen hide nor hair of the Ashford family for more than twelve years. If one of them was here, then this was no minor facility as she had been told. She was now certain that something major had been going on here and that, based on prior experience, there was a larger scheme in the works at this very moment. 

A crackling in her earpiece made her jump.

“Ada, we have a problem,” Carla’s voice rang through the static. She sounded out of breath.

“What did you do?” she asked, her annoyance with the other woman returning.

Some gunfire rang out over the communicator. “ _I_ didn’t do anything. Well, not much anyway. Your boyfriend and his brunette attack dog set off the goddamn alarm and now this place is crawling with J’avo. And…” she trailed off.

“And?” Ada inquired as she ripped the ID tag off the dead woman and headed for the door to the server room.

“Well…they saw me.”

Pinching the bridge of her nose, she sighed. “Who? The J’avo or Leon?”

“Both.”

She groaned. “You had one job, Carla. _One job._ ”

More gunshots and shouting were heard from the other end of the receiver. “Hey, I’m not appreciating the tone you’re taking with me.”

“I really don’t care what you think. I’m not the one who got spotted, now am I?”

“Tsk, tsk. Keep that up and you won’t be getting any in the near future,” Carla chided.

Ada rolled her eyes at the comment. “Just get down here without getting shot. Can you at least do that?” she asked in a condescending tone.

“Will do. _Bitch_ ,” came the reply from the other end. 

The way Carla had called her a bitch carried an odd tone of endearment with it that brought a smile to her face. _This is one messed up relationship we’ve got going, huh Carla?_ Ada thought as she slid the ID card through the scanner. The light switched to green and she pushed open the heavy metal door.

Spreading out before her was the fairly large server room. At its center lay the main data bank, which she needed to access to get the information she came here for. Instead of trying to navigate through the maze of server towers, Ada opted to go over them. Using her grappling hook, she swung up and ran along the tops of the towers. 

When she reached the data bank, she jumped down and looked for the access point. Finding it easily, she began hacking into the system. With all the commotion upstairs, Ada knew that time would be running short. After breaking through, she inserted the device she had brought with her. It would forward all the information to a private, secure server located god only knows where as the client had requested. However, as she initiated the sequence she slipped in a last minute protocol to copy all the information to her phone.

As she watched the progress bar tick along, Ada heard a loud bang from somewhere off to the left and up above her.

“I’m inbound.” Carla’s voice was faint in the room, but clear in her earpiece. “They’re close behind me though.”

“Try to lose them in the rows of servers. You should be able to shake them easily enough,” Ada advised as she drew her gun.

She didn’t honestly think Leon would shoot her, but she had to be prepared for anything. The sound of Carla’s grappling hook latching onto a catwalk reverberated overhead. Faint but familiar voices came from the doorway Ada had entered through. Glancing back to the progress bar, she silently cursed. The download was going far too slowly for her comfort. Not that she didn’t like Leon and company, she just knew that their involvement would surely impede her escape and time was certainly of the essence. As their footsteps raced closer, she stepped in front of the screen to at least keep the two agents’ attention away from what she was doing until the information was sent. 

Rounding the corner to her right with guns drawn were Leon and, oh, what was her name again? Ah yes, she believed the woman’s name was Helena Harper. From what Ada had seen of her, Helena was a sharpshooter with a mind just as keen as her aim. Aside from the red-hot temper, the curvy brunette seemed to be a model agent. A good fit for the often cynical, although quite chivalrous, Leon Kennedy. 

The pair stopped about three meters from her. Ada holstered her gun and raised her hands.

“Ada,” Leon called to her.

She smirked. “Surprised to see me? How long has it been?”

“Too long,” he answered. He relaxed and lowered his gun, nodding to Helena to do the same. She seemed a bit hesitant, but followed suit.

“I’m impressed, Leon. You seem to have been able to keep a partner this time,” she observed in the teasing tone that she always used with him. “Glad to see she’s proved her metal.”

“What are you doing here?” Helena asked, cutting straight to the point.

“What, indeed?” Carla’s voice resonated from behind Ada.

At the sudden interjection, Helena raised her gun only to be taken aback by who she saw the voice belonged to. Leon just stood there, completely dumbstruck at the sight of two Ada Wongs.

Ada crossed her arms as Carla sauntered over, quite pleased with the effect her entrance had made on the two agents.

“Was the dramatic entrance really necessary, Carla?” she asked the woman that could pass as her twin.

“I couldn’t resist,” the woman answered with a devil-may-care shrug. 

Helena’s eyes narrowed and brows furrowed. “Carla?” She exchanged a glance with Leon. “As in Carla Radames?”

Carla made a dramatic bow. “The one and only.”

“That can’t be…” Leon murmured, completely bewildered by the sight in front of him.

Chuckling mischievously, Carla sashayed over to Ada. “You were right,” she crooned, wrapping her arm around Ada’s waist before there was time to react. “He’s so cute when he’s confused.” This the vixen had purred into Ada’s ear loud enough for the others to easily hear.

Careful not to reveal how Carla’s breath against her skin made her tingle, she drew her gun and placed the barrel underneath the woman’s chin.

“You have five seconds to get off me before I put a bullet in your head,” Ada growled.

She could feel Carla’s smirk. “Tsk. Temper, temper, Ada. It’s no wonder you always work alone.”

“Speaking of which,” Helena cut in, trying to change the subject. “Why are you here?”

As if on cue, a beep sounded behind them signaling the download had finished. Ada pulled the device out of the access point and tossed it to Leon.

“Working, of course.”

Leon raised an eyebrow at the device.

“There’s information on what the facility was doing in there. Possibly even clues to my employer’s intentions,” she stated very matter-of-factly. 

Helena looked at her with concern. “That’s awfully charitable of you. What gives?”

Before Ada could answer her, Carla jumped in.

“Look, not that I don’t enjoy all this lovely banter, but there’s a self-destruct countdown over here that think we should be worried about.”

Without another word, the group ran flat out towards the exit. Carla and Ada stopped in front of the ledge up to the door. Each stood ready to lift the others up. Leon and Helena immediately understood and didn’t break their stride. At a full sprint, they used the momentum to launch themselves up onto the ledge. After those two were over, she and Carla shot their grappling hooks into the hallway and swung up and out of there. 

When they were through, she turned to see Carla smash the control panel, causing the emergency blast door to seal the server room. They had only gotten about 5 meters down the corridor before the explosion shook the whole level. The deafening blast knocked Ada to the ground, flames and debris filling her fading vision.

As she came to, Ada was greeted first by a high-pitched ringing in her ears. Next, she felt the gentle shower of water from the sprinkler system soaking through her clothes. Her eyes fluttered open to see Carla crouched over her. She seemed to be talking, but Ada couldn’t hear what she was saying. What she saw, however, left her taken aback.

The solid steel blast door was bent around Carla, who had blood running down the side of her face. A few small flames still sputtered, their light mixing with the slowly flashing emergency lights. But, this wasn’t what caught her attention. It was the look on the other woman’s face, the face that was a mirror of her own. Ada saw in those amber eyes not only genuine concern, but something she had never seen in Carla before: fear. The arrogant, cunning femme fatale had been replaced with a distraught young woman. 

She didn’t know why, but she enjoyed seeing this Carla. There were no lies here, no plotting, just pure feeling. It had probably been decades since her own face had been distorted by such raw terror. By now, her heart was far too hardened to be so moved.

And yet as sound began to return to the world, Ada felt a striking urge to reach out to this woman and comfort her. She let the feeling pass, however, opting instead to try and get up.

“I’m fine,” she said, her own voice still sounding a bit muffled. “So stop your crying you sissy.”

The concern on Carla’s face was exchanged for anger and annoyance. “You need to get your eyes checked you hag because I wasn’t fucking crying.”

“Sure you weren’t,” Ada teased in an attempt at lightening the situation as she sat up. 

Rolling her eyes, Carla shrugged the warped metal that was once the blast door off with a little effort. “Next time I won’t do you any favors.”

Catching the woman’s arm as she tried to storm off, Ada pulled her back.

“Thank you. Really. You probably saved my life back there.”

The water had begun to wash away the blood from Carla’s face. The crying comment had been a dig, but now that she had a closer look Ada thought she saw tears being washed away as well. Her eyes wandered to the ripped sleeve in her hand where she noticed something much more important. She tried to turn the other woman’s arm over, but was met with resistance.

“Let go, Ada.” 

It was a warning. It wasn’t going to stop her though.

Ada managed to maneuver herself while twisting so that she could get a good look at Carla’s forearm. When she did, she saw marks from an injector pen layered over one another. Some were more faded than others, which meant that she’d been injecting herself multiple times a day for at least a week.

“Jesus Christ,” she whispered in shock. “I thought you said you had stabilized.”

Carla stopped struggling, but didn’t meet her gaze. “I said I had a prototype serum. It still needs work.”

“You should’ve told me,” Ada replied softly.

This brought a scoff. “Oh, you suddenly care now? And what would you—could you—have done if I’d told you?”

She had no answer. She wasn’t a scientist in any sense of the word. So what difference did it make? 

Ada placed her hands on Carla’s shoulders. “You can’t do this by yourself.”

Finally meeting her eyes, awash with hidden pain, a silence stretched between them. After a few moments, Carla responded.

“You can’t help me, Ada.”

Despair hidden by stubborn resistance. It rang loudly in those words. Ada brushed the wet, disheveled hair out of her double’s face.

“Maybe not.” She paused, taking Carla’s face in her hands. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna try.”

With that, she brought their lips together. She felt Carla relax into the kiss, arms wrapping around her waist. This was the only way she could reach out to her and Ada could swear she felt the damaged woman in her arms reaching as well. 

When the kiss ended, she waited for some witty remark or sarcasm, but she received none. Carla merely rested her head on Ada’s shoulder.

“Thank you.”

It was barely audible, but those two simple words cut straight into a heart she had thought was too hardened to crack. Ada forced away the feeling for later. They still had to get out of here after all.

“Come on,” she said, pulling away. “Let’s go make sure Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum aren’t dead.”

This brought a weak smile back to Carla’s face. “Right.”

With that, they made their way over the debris to find Leon and Helena. They were by no means done with this mission.


	6. From the Shadows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a race against the clock as Ada and Carla try to make their escape

Climbing over some rubble, Ada and Carla started searching for the two agents. Leon and Helena had gotten out before them, but some parts of the ceiling had fallen due to the explosion. Ada silently hoped that the others hadn’t been crushed beneath stone and plaster. 

The sprinkler system slowed to a halt as Ada heard movement around the corner. It seemed Leon and Helena had escaped relatively unscathed, however, they were still a bit shaken up from the blast.

“Glad to see you’re still alive,” Leon commented in his usual monotone. 

He really was cute, especially with the scruffy beginnings of a beard showing on his chin, but from what Ada had seen, he was amazingly boring. She would periodically check in on him when she could spare the time. She had learned that Leon was almost always on missions. And when he wasn’t doing that, he was drinking. Needless to say, Ada had little interest in a real romance with the broody agent. Although, she found teasing him was quite amusing.

She flipped her hair confidently and smirked. “Of course. You should know it would take much more than something like that to kill me.”

This brought a small smile to the man. “Right.”

Just then, Leon and Helena’s cell phones rang. They both answered to see Hunnigan’s face on the screen.

“Leon? Helena? I’ve been trying to reach you, but there’s a lot of interference on your end.” Her voice and image crackled through static.

“We’re pretty far underground right now so I’m not surprised,” Helena commented.

Hunnigan nodded. “So did you find anything?”

At this, both agents looked up at Ada and Carla. There were a few beats of tense silence that were finally broken by Helena.

“We recovered some information on the site from the main server. We can send it to you when we get back to the surface,” she provided, seeming to guard her words carefully.

“Well, you two had better hurry. The local military is itching to blow that place off the map.” Her warning wasn’t lost on anyone present. “They responded in record time. I doubt they were as ignorant of the true nature of this facility as they claim.”

Leon nodded. “More reason for us to get this info to you.”

“Good luck.” And with that she disconnected.

Carla smirked. “Must be nice to play the hero.”

Ada shot her a look, then turned to the others. “We’d better get on our way then.”

They all nodded and hurried down the now darkened hallway with only the slowly flashing emergency lights to guide them. The entire atmosphere had seemed to change with the explosion. The group proceeded in silence, both sides still mistrustful of one another. It didn’t help that the strange message, probably obliterated by rubble, kept echoing in Ada’s head. It was starting to look more and more like she had gotten into another dark, twisted plot of some sort. Those things were always so messy. 

When they arrived at the lift, Ada breathed a sigh of relief to see that it was still functioning. She nodded to Carla, who punched in the command to extend the walkway. The lights here were still on, thankfully, so there was hope that the ride up would be smooth sailing.

As the lift ascended, an eerie chill ran up her spine. A quiet whisper of danger in the inner reaches of her conscious mind. It was the feeling a zebra gets when being silently stalked by a lion hidden in the grass. They were being watched, of that much she was certain. Controlling her breathing, Ada checked and reloaded her gun. If things went south, she needed to be prepared.

“Well,” Leon sighed, breaking the silence. “At least the air strike warning made the J’avo clear out.”

“I don’t like it,” Helena murmured. “Too much silence.”

Ada couldn’t agree more. It was as if they were being coaxed into a false sense of security. Or being led into a trap.

Her thoughts were broken by Leon calling to her and tossing something at her. She caught the object easily and smiled when she saw what it was.

“Thought I’d return the compact you left in the helicopter back in China,” he stated with a small smirk.

“Thanks,” Ada replied nonchalantly. 

Pretending to check her make-up in the small mirror, she watched the agent’s face drop slightly. What did he expect? Gushing gratitude and a kiss for an easily replaceable make-up kit? The poor boy fell for her tricks every time.

At that moment, she saw a flicker of movement in the mirror. A loud crash sounded as the lift jerked and shuddered to a stop. The lights cut out, bathing the chasm in red emergency light.

“Shit.” Ada had let her guard down for a moment and hadn’t spotted whatever had cut the power. 

Sparks shot out from one of the walls. Even in the dim light, she could make out large gashes in the metal. Something was in here with them. 

“Carla, get this thing back on line right now!” she warned, eyes scanning the shadows for signs of movement.

“Already on it,” the woman replied. She connected to the control terminal as the others formed a protective circle, guns drawn and ready.

Tense moments passed with small sounds echoing from the darkness. Then, shots rang out. 

“It’s there!” Helena shouted as she opened fire.

Ada and Leon turned to see an enormous shadow swoop down from above. It landed on the edge of the platform, crushing part of the railing and causing the whole structure to shake. Glowing red eyes burned in the face of the reptilian monstrosity looming over them. It seemed to be roughly human shaped, almost like a severely deformed lizard-human hybrid. Saliva dripped from open jaws filled with long, jagged teeth. The red light illuminated the spines along its back and a thick, armored tail.

Ada didn’t hesitate to open fire on the beast. Neither did Leon or Helena. But, the creature just let out an ungodly roar and stomped forward.

“Carla,” she called in warning as the creature advanced on them.

“I’m doing my best here.” The woman slammed her fists down. “Shit! I’m gonna have to reroute power manually.”

Ada and the others dove out of the way of the charging beast. 

“Whatever you have to do, do it fast!” Helena shouted.

Carla pried open a panel on the side of the control terminal. “Just keep ugly over there occupied, all right?” 

Long, bulky arms swung at the group. Ada had to figure out the beast’s weakness if they were going to survive. As it charged again, knocking Leon over, she spotted what she was looking for. While most of the monster was covered in thick scales and bony spines, there was soft, discolored skin between the shoulder blades. 

_Jackpot_ , she thought with a grin and fired several bullets into the spot. The beast shrieked and doubled over, allowing Helena and Leon to get some good shots to its face. It flailed and jumped off the platform, hanging onto the wall.

At this point, the spines on its back grew and laced together, making something like an armored shell. The beast turned and its skin split from the mouth down to the collarbone, opening to reveal a sickeningly wet and fang-filled maw. A glowing organ nestled deep in the open throat spewed putrid liquid at the lift.

Everyone dove out of the way and watched the liquid corrode the metal it touched. 

“Acid?!” Leon exclaimed. “Do you think they made it dangerous enough?”

“I’m not sure it was made to do that. I think it mutated to be able to fight us from a distance,” Helena concluded from behind the cover of some crates. “We’ve got to hit it when it opens up again.

Ada jumped up, tracking the creature as it stalked along the wall. When it stopped to spit its acid again, she lined up her shot and pulled the trigger. But, the gun only clicked. She cursed as she rolled away from the attack. When she reached cover, Ada searched for a new clip to reload. Nothing.

“Fuck.” She glanced at the control terminal to see Carla fiddling with wires, with occasional sparks flying. “Will you hurry up?”

“Almost there!” Carla shouted back. “And…done.”

An electronic whir emitted from the terminal and the lift jolted upward.

Another awful howl jerked Ada’s attention back to the attack underway. The beast raced along the wall in pursuit as they rose. It passed them and jumped from above.

“Ada!”

She whipped around to see Carla toss the loaded crossbow. Catching it easily, she took aim at the now exposed glowing organ. The explosive arrow let loose and struck its mark, detonating moments later. 

The creature fell hard onto the platform, causing the surface to fracture along the places the acid had corroded. Acting quickly, both Ada and Carla grabbed the others and shot their grappling hooks high up. They swung to the nearest platform and dropped the two agents there. But instead of stopping there, they ascended and vaulted over to another exit.

Standing side by side, the two leaned over the edge to watch the last remnants of the lift crumble and fall into the abyss below. Their eyes met the gaze of Leon and Helena on the opposite side of the open shaft.

“Looks like we’ll be taking the high road,” Ada called to them in an amused tone.

Leon nodded. “Looks like it. Thanks for the save, by the way. I owe you one.”

This made her smirk. “The more things change, the more they stay the same. Good luck, Leon.”

She turned and started down the corridor, muttering, “You’re gonna need it.”

Climbing ten flights of stairs definitely wasn’t on Ada’s list of favorite things to do, but at this point she really didn’t want to ride any more elevators. So, the two started the long climb to the surface.

On the second flight, it seemed Carla wanted to break the silence.

“So, why did we ditch those two anyway?”

Ada shrugged. “Keeps them from attempting to pry information from us. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather avoid an interrogation.”

“You sure it wasn’t just to give your boyfriend the slip?” Carla asked in a knowing tone.

Rolling her eyes, Ada continued the climb. “He’s _not_ my boyfriend. And if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were jealous,” she added as a shot at the other woman.

“Hmph.”

This peaked her interest. It seemed her sideways remark had struck a nerve. She turned and trapped Carla against the railing.

Ada leaned in to the woman’s slightly startled face. “You _are_ jealous.”

An indignant look accompanied a light blush on Carla’s cheeks. “I am not jealous of that scruffy blonde blockhead.”

With a wry smile, she lifted the younger woman’s chin. Barely a whisper separated their lips. But instead of closing the distance, Ada turned Carla’s chin to the side.

“Liar,” she chided in her captive’s ear.

Scoffing, Carla shoved her away and stomped up the stairs. Ada merely smiled and followed. While the romantic games she played with Leon were amusing, the power struggle between her and Carla was absolutely electrifying. The risk of playing with someone on the same level enticed her. And she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t pleased by Carla’s jealousy.

However, the game could also be used to get Carla to be more talkative. She was certain the woman hadn’t told her everything about her motives and what went down here.

At about the fifth flight, Ada started her probing.

“So what was so important that you would risk navigating this facility by yourself?” 

There was a beat of silence. “I already told you. They were trying to replicate the enhanced C-virus. I needed to see how far they had gotten and if anyone else was involved. I have to destroy any progress so it doesn’t get mass produced.”

“Then why do I get the feeling there’s a lot more to this place? What else were you looking for?” Ada argued.

“Just your imagination.”

“Bullshit.”

Carla whipped around. “Leave it alone. I don’t have to tell you anything. It doesn’t involve you.”

“Yes, you do. You involved me the moment you barged into my safe house and set up shop.”

They stopped a few steps below the exit. Carla turned to her with an irritated expression shaping her features.

“Fine. You want to know? I was looking for any of my staff and evidence of my last experiment,” she snapped.

“Last experiment? The J’avo?”

The younger woman shook her head. “No. During those last few months leading up to the attacks, I used the enhanced virus to do a lot of experiments. Unfortunately, my memory of the last few days is patchy. I think my exposure to the virus,” she chuckled darkly, “and being effectively blown up, damaged my frontal cortex. A big function of which is memory.”

Ada stood with hands on her hips. “So, you’re saying it’s amnesia?” she asked skeptically.

“Look, all I know is that I have a really bad feeling about the last project I worked on. I remember keeping it in the Quad Tower facility, but when I try to dig deeper, I hit a wall.”

As soon as Ada heard mention of the Quad Tower, memories of the fight with Simmons and the lone chrysalis in Carla’s inner sanctum breaking open to reveal a slimy hand reaching for freedom flooded her mind. Her stomach turned and she pinned Carla to the wall with her forearm.

“That thing is dead. I killed it when I destroyed your research data,” she hissed darkly.

Carla’s eyes widened. “You saw it? What was it?”

“Didn’t really get a good look. It was just another chrysalis. From the look of things, you used one of your own scientists to make it,” Ada gritted her teeth as the memory of the flames burned in her eyes. “But, I was more concerned with destroying your mistakes than figuring out what they were.”

A cringe twisted the woman’s face as she turned away from Ada’s withering gaze. “I hope you really destroyed that thing.” Her eyes closed. “Because I get the feeling that it could tear down all that we know.”

Ada eased her grip on the younger woman. She sighed. “I already said I’d help you with this. But, you’re gonna have to be honest with me for that to happen.”

The younger woman returned her intense amber eyes in a suspicious glance. She gently pushed Ada away and continued to the door.

“Fine, fine. Just stop with the speeches already.” Carla turned back with a smirk. “I just might think you’re getting soft, Ms. Wong. We can’t have that now, can we?”

The playful insult held weight and they both knew it. Ada had to keep reminding herself that the game they were playing was just that, _a game_. The two of them were merely making moves and counter-moves. Both had their own motives for their current arrangement. The possibility for anything more was out of the question. However, the fact that these thoughts kept drifting back into her mind whenever the two interacted was concerning. If she got too attached, Carla would gain the upper hand or worse, break her heart. 

Ada wasn’t all that worried about heartbreak though. She’d given up any desire for love ages ago. Losing advantage was the real threat here.

She followed Carla through the door, which was an emergency exit on the backside of the facility. Her eyes were temporarily blinded from stepping into the light. As her vision adjusted, Ada examined their position. Fortune seemed to be on their side this time, since they had come out fairly close to the extraction point and wouldn’t have to go through town.

“So, what’s the game plan?” Carla asked.

“Well, we’re gonna go up through that pass to that hill on the western slope,” she said, gesturing to the locations. “Up there is the extraction point. We’ll get there long before the military bombs this place.”

Carla whistled. “Certainly hope the dream team back there has a way out.”

Ada nodded and took some more ammo from the gun case slung over the other woman’s shoulder. She reloaded her handgun, holstered it, and began the trek toward the mountains.

The pair had made their way about halfway up the mountain pass when they came to a ridge that afforded them a wide view of the carnage of the town below them. Fire and infected ran rampant over the ruins of the most likely quiet village. While it was a terrible sight to behold, something much closer caught her eye. A pick-up truck was speeding down one of the few roads out of town.

“Hmm.” She turned to Carla and took the sniper rifle from its gun case. 

“What is it?” Carla inquired. 

Ada peered the scope at the vehicle. “Someone’s trying to get out of here.”

This gave Carla a haughty smirk. “Good luck. There’s no way the militia will leave any witnesses to this fiasco.”

Usually Ada would’ve continued on at this point, but something told her to take a closer look. And sure enough, she saw that Leon and Helena were the ones in the truck. More disturbing was that right when she recognized the two, a monstrous infected erupted from the brush and slammed into their truck. This sent it tumbling away from the road. 

“It’s those two idiots and they need our help,” Ada relayed to her companion. “Give me all the sniper ammo.”

Carla rolled her eyes, but complied, mumbling, “They’re too much work to keep alive.”

Ignoring that, Ada lay down and positioned herself at the best vantage point. _Looks like I’ll have to be the guardian angel again. So annoying._

The creature attacking the others looked to be about 10 feet or so tall. Deformed and lopsided, it lumbered around trying to smash everything that moved with a telephone pole it found lying around. Things were complicated by J’avo attacking with the beast. She figured it was best to start off by picking off some of them. Let the others deal with the big one.

This was the kind of fight she liked best, one where she could work from the shadows, out of the way of the mess. She steadied her breathing and heart-rate, lining up the shots with the cool precision she had trained for years to learn. One by one the J’avo fell to either her shots or those of Leon and Helena fighting far below.

A weight on her back disturbed her concentration. 

“I’m bored,” came a whine right next to her ear.

Carla had laid on top of her, resting her head on Ada’s shoulders. The act had distracted her for several reasons, not the least of which was being slightly turned on at the close proximity and body weight pressed against her.

“Get off, Carla,” she growled, feeling her temperature begin to rise, which was actually nice in the cold mountain air.

This made the woman chuckle. “Oh, I’d love to _get off_. But, I don’t think this is quite the time for that sort of thing. Tsk, tsk. Naughty Ada.”

Ada groaned at the crude pun and rolled her eyes so hard she could swear she could see out of the back of her head.

“Shut up. I’ve got more important things to. Just don’t fuck up my shots.”

A smile could be felt from the woman on her back. “Well, shooting will be a bit difficult with increased heart-rate and uneven breathing, won’t it _darling_?” At this Carla, pressed her hips into Ada’s rear, making the shot land in the arm of the giant infected.

“Goddammit! Stay still or I’ll pin you to the ground with an arrow.” She knew the threat was empty, but Carla fooling around like this could endanger lives and she didn’t particularly want Leon dead.

No doubt feeling triumphant, Carla was silent for a few minutes after that. This left Ada to concentrate on the battle below. It seemed the beast was weakening slowly, but surely. 

“That Helena is one hell of a shot,” Carla commented over Ada’s shoulder. “Wouldn’t want to be on her bad side.”

Nodding in agreement, Ada waited for her next shot. It seemed her contributions had not gone unnoticed by those down at the bottom of the ravine. The two agents likely knew she was helping them. 

A well-placed shot from Helena brought the beast to its knees, but it still had plenty of strength to pick up a boulder to hurl at the two agents. Ada saw her opening and put a bullet right between its eyes. This finally brought the monstrous infected down for good (hopefully since sometimes they didn’t always stay dead for long).

“Nice going, Annie Oakley,” came more commentary from behind.

She saw Leon turn in her direction and give a knowing nod of appreciation before motioning to Helena to return to the road. Satisfied that the two could make the rest of the way on her own, Ada pushed Carla off of her and packed up the rifle. At being so unceremoniously dropped, the woman pouted and brushed herself off in annoyance.

“I have no idea why you keep him around. Natural selection should have killed him off ages ago.”

Ada shrugged and handed the gun case to her. “He’s more resilient than many, otherwise he wouldn’t be here. And besides,” She couldn’t suppress a smirk. “He’s so easy to get info out of it’s almost sad.”

A smile grew on Carla’s face. “You’ve got that right. Maybe we’re just that good.”

“We?” Ada asked with an incredulous tone. She started back up the path that would lead them to escape, breaking into a fast jog. “If you’re going to lump us together, you’ll have to keep up.”

Carla matched her pace easily, but both women fell silent, knowing that they wouldn’t be in the clear until they were far away from this godforsaken mountain side.

Suddenly, Ada’s ear piece crackled with orders being shouted in what sounded like some variation of Russian. She understood enough of it to know that it was the local militia and armed forces beginning their sterilization of the area. Jets passing overhead and explosions in the valley below affirmed her suspicions.

“We’ve got to move!” she shouted, going from a fast jog to full sprint up the uneven trail.

“No shit, Sherlock. I tried death on once already and I’m not keen to try it again,” Carla chided, voice dripping in sarcasm.

In moments, the pair finally ascended the hill where a small helicopter was waiting for them. The two jumped in and started it up as fast as they could.

“How do we know they won’t shoot us down as soon as we take off?” Carla asked hesitantly after they had donned the headsets.

The helicopter began take off, ascending as fast as was physically safe to do.

“My employer passed a message to the military to not attack this chopper,” Ada responded. 

As she sped away from the doomed valley, she chanced a look back. There was little left but flames and Ada hoped that she could untangle the web of secrets now entangling her.


End file.
